This is a good time of the year to pile up your plate with colours. Choose from nature?s bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables in hues of red, purple, orange, yellow? The leafy greens must be arriving from the farms too. Did you just squirm at the very mention of them? Well, if you did, then do note that it is difficult to find a nutritionally perfect substitute for them. Most leafy greens are rich in vitamin A, calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, riboflavin, vitamins B-6 and E? But wait, there?s a simpler way to figure out how nutritionally well you stock up your platter ? does it look colourful or is a particular colour dominating it? It must ideally be a celebration of colours.
?A diet rich in colourful fruits and vegetables ensures that you are getting the much-needed vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. No single fruit or vegetable can provide all the nutrients the body needs. So, eat a variety of things to make sure you are having a healthy and balanced diet,? says Honey Khanna, nutritionist with Max Healthcare. For instance, ?yellow and orange coloured fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamin A and beta carotene. Beetroot and pomegranate are rich in iron. In any case, a blend of all colours not just makes the platter look more palatable, but also breaks the monotony which otherwise sets in,? she adds.
Follow the colour code to make life simple. Calculating whether you are eating enough proteins, calcium and vitamins or not is difficult to keep tabs on. What is simpler is to ask the question ? how colourful does my platter look?
Colour does make a difference. But it?s not just colour that sets apart brown rice from its white version. Allow dietician Manisha Arora who is also a consultant with Veetee Fine Foods Ltd, (producers of Basmati rice in India) to explain. ?The wholegrain of rice actually has several layers. Only the outermost layer, the husk, is removed to produce what is known as brown rice. This is the least damaging to the nutritional value of rice and avoids unnecessary loss of nutrients that occurs with processing.? She goes on to explain that if brown rice is further milled to remove the bran and most of the germ layer, the result is whiter rice, but also rice that is low in nutritive value. On being polished further, it removes the aleuronic layer of the grain ? the layer filled with health-supportive, essential fats. Because these fats, once exposed to air by the refining process, are highly susceptible to oxidation, this layer is removed to extend the shelf life of the product. The resulting rice is simply refined starch that is largely bereft of its original nutrients. So, that makes brown rice a ?100% whole grain food which contains the nutrient-dense bran and a concentrated source of fibre, which gives brown rice its light tan colour and chewy texture.?
Now let?s move on to the fruit that?s supposed to keep the doctor away ? the apple. Is red apple nutritionally different from its green cousin then? Or, for that matter, are brown eggs different from white ones? ?Not really,? says Dr Anup Misra, director, diabetic and metabolic diseases, Fortis hospital. ?But yes, broccoli is healthier than cauliflower, and spinach is nutritionally superior to fenugreek (methi). The colour principle applies to most other fruits and vegetables as well,? he says, adding that ?chemical compounds that make cherries red, blueberries blue, and spinach green, protect us from a host of diseases.?. Yes, the platter must be a healthy blend of all colours, but I?d recommend a few frontline fruits like apple, pear, papaya and guava over others.? Misra classified them on the ?basis of sugar, fibre and antioxidant content.?
James A Joseph and Daniel A Nadeau classify it differently in their book The Color Code: A Revolutionary Eating Plan for Optimum Health. They divide fruits and vegetables into four colour segments: red (strawberries, tomatoes), orange-yellow (bananas, pumpkins, mangoes?), green (spinach, asparagus, broccoli), and blue-purple (plums, eggplant, grapes). Their prescription is to eat fruits and vegetables from the four colour groups each day. The fruits and vegetables are rated according to ?oxygen radical absorbance capacity? or their ability to fight disease-causing free radicals. Blueberries rank near the top of the charts, with strawberries and oranges following close behind.
That?s as far as colour co-ordinating your diet is concerned. But one needs to know how much is too much, or too little. ?At least five, and up to nine servings,? recommends Misra. ?One serving could either be a medium fruit or half cup of fresh fruits or three-fourth vegetable/fruit juice or one cup of raw, leafy greens.?
So these splashes of colour won?t just be visually appealing from now on. They should keep you in the pink of health too.
